A great, hearty, healthy & low-fat soup for a chilly Fall night. Definitely add the zucchini and green beans (I added sliced baby portobello mushrooms also) toward the END of cooking time, not at the beginning, or they'll be mush. I used tiny elbow macaroni instead of broken spaghetti, and cooked it separately before adding to the pot. The tomato-basil pistou definitely makes this soup (and sidenote: try dunking some bread in the pistou before you add it all to the soup...mmm!). On it's own, it's just an ordinary (bit bland) veggie/bean soup but the pistou gives it a great flavour punch. Served with some shavings of a good parm reggiano, crusty bread, and a decent chardonnay, this is a very warming and satisfying meal. Looking forward to taking leftovers for lunch at work this week! (makes a big pot)  -  28 Sep 2009  (Review from Allrecipes US | Canada)

After spending quite some time cubing veggies, I found them to be mushy after the 45 min simmering time....and I even simmered on low, not med-low as the recipe suggested. It just stunk that I had mush before even reaching steps 2 and 3. I hope the end result is tasty enough for me to want to try again, only this time with my alterations such as adding the zucchini after the green beans, potatoes, and carrots.  -  23 Sep 2009  (Review from Allrecipes US | Canada)

Very yummy with a few changes. Simmer veggies minus the zucchini on low for 30 min. Add zucchini when you add the noodles. I also added swiss chard because I had it and used wheat spiral noodles again because that is what I had. Also added browned ground turkey. Important thing with soup is to use a good quality stock. My 6 yr old who every evening looks at dinner and says, "YUCKY" ate a good size bowl of this and enjoyed it. I like to cook things from all over the world and my kids and I look up on the globe where the recipe is from. Thanks for a yummy french recipe.  -  24 Sep 2009  (Review from Allrecipes US | Canada)